Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Increased Risk of Gout

According to a recently published study in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is strongly associated with gout, particularly in patients who have undergone intestinal resection.

This study utilized a multicenter database to identify patients who had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) between 1999 and 2022. Among this cohort, patients who had also been diagnosed with gout were identified. Demographic data was collected and assessed, including patients with IBD-associated arthritis and those who had undergone intestinal resection. Various risk factors associated with gout were analyzed, and multivariate analysis was employed to establish the relationships.

Out of the 69,260,780 patients identified from the database, 0.30% were diagnosed with UC, of whom 4.3% were found to have gout. Similarly, 0.36% of the dataset had CD, and 5.61% of those patients had gout. Notably, more men were prevalent in the UC and gout group compared with the CD and gout group (58% vs 51%).

After adjusting for potential confounding variables, it was established that CD was significantly associated with gout, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.68 (95% CI, 1.60-1.75). Likewise, UC was also significantly associated with gout, with an OR of 1.38 (95% CI, 1.31-1.44).

Subgroup analysis, focusing on patients who had undergone intestinal resection, revealed an association with gout. Patients with CD who had undergone intestinal resection exhibited a more substantial risk of gout than those who had not undergone surgery, with an OR of 2.34 (95% CI, 2.25-2.43). A similar trend was observed in the UC group with intestinal resection, with an OR of 1.53 (95% CI, 1.49-1.56).

“Several pathophysiological mechanisms could be contributory to this relationship. IBD-related intestinal resection is a significant risk factor for gout in this patient population,” the investigators wrote. “We recommend that patients with IBD who present with new-onset arthritis be carefully investigated for gout.”